Its
recent losses of special Congressional elections in formerly safe districts
indicate that the Republican Party may be in the process of self-destruction.
Deservedly so. The past eight years have constituted a disaster the
likes of which America has never before suffered—a disaster for
the practice of constitutional government and the rule of law; for common
Americans’ economic well-being; and for America’s true “homeland
security”, both abroad and especially at home. And for all this
the jackbooted leadership of the Republican Party is primarily to blame,
and ought to pay a heavy price at the polls come November.

Changing
one of the Establishment’s horses—or jackasses—for
another in the middle of this septic stream, though, will alter nothing
of substance for the better. If the Democrats end up controlling both
Congress and the White House, the exorbitantly expensive socialistic
policies they will enact within the first two years of an Obama or a
Clinton Administration, in the context of a collapsing monetary and
banking system among other crises, will engender catastrophic effects.
Whatever confidence naive Americans will have lent the Democrats will
evaporate in the white heat of economic and social meltdown amidst national
bankruptcy. So the Democratic Party, too, will likely self-destruct.

And
if by some quirk of malicious Fate the Republicans manage to maintain
their grip on the White House while the Democrats (as right now appears
certain) retain control of Congress, leading to political gridlock in
the midst of economic and social turmoil, both parties will self-destruct
simultaneously.

Well,
good riddance all around! But what will take their places in the political
firmament? Something will. The question is: Who will decide what that
something will be?

Some
people will argue that American patriots’ goal should be a new
party, if organized not around Ron Paul himself then around the political
revolution “from the bottom up” that his truncated candidacy
for the Republican nomination has demonstrated is as possible as it
is desirable. Others will propose building up and energizing one of
the already organized third parties, such as the Constitution Party.
In ordinary times, these would be good ideas, particularly if they could
be combined into a single plan. Today, however, they are old and tired
remedies ill-suited to the unprecedentedly perilous situation in which
Americans find themselves.

Today,
the focus of patriots’ attention must be, not simply a party,
but a constitutionalist movement that sweeps aside the distinctions,
discriminations, and distractions inherent in “party politics”
to embrace instead every American of good will who desires to save his
country. This will require not simply a movement for restoration of
the Constitution as a generality, but for restoration of constitutional
government specifically through the institution that includes potentially
all Americans and that the Constitution itself tells us is “necessary
to the security of a free State”: namely, “the Militia of
the several States.” For once Americans have constructed the groundwork
for revitalizing the Militia, not only the formation, reformation, or
reinforcement of a viable constitutionalist political vehicle, but also
many other patriotic actions, will become possible. And even if patriots
cannot form a new political vehicle and elect honest and intelligent
candidates to office in time to fend off in the short term the worst
consequences of the mess the Republicans and Democrats have bequeathed
to this country, nevertheless large numbers of Americans will have been
mobilized, organized, and empowered with legal authority for the long
march of reasserting true popular self-government, and thus taking back
their homeland, State by State, through the Militia.

The
Militia, after all, are far more important than any political party.
No political party enjoys any explicit constitutional standing.
To the contrary, most political parties—certainly the Republican
and Democratic Parties—have proven themselves to be the avaricious
“factions” that the Founding Fathers execrated as enemies
of a lasting free society. And even a political party made up primarily
of patriots might not be able to save this country, because it would
still lack the constitutional position and powers to take the actions
necessary under the extreme conditions that will soon confront America.

The
Second Amendment declares that “[a] well regulated Militia”—not
any political party, let alone any particular politician—is “necessary
to the security of a free State”. How many times does one need
to be reminded by the supreme law of the land that something is “NECESSARY”
before he concludes that it needs to be in operation, and if it is not
in operation now then it needs to be put into operation immediately,
if not sooner?

Inasmuch
as “the Militia of the several States” consist of every
able-bodied citizen from sixteen to sixty—and whoever else among
the adult population volunteers for service—putting the Militia
into operation will require some contribution from just about everyone.
So patriots, first and foremost, must stop pouring the bulk of their
efforts and scarce resources into traditional short-term “fixes”
that invariably fizzle, and instead concentrate on what the Constitution
tells them, in no uncertain terms, is the long-term solution. If
not, how can they possibly claim to be constitutionalists?!

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Anyone
with the least historical foresight can predict what is coming. All
too typically, when societies collapse into political, economic, and
social chaos, “a man on a white horse” emerges to “restore
order”—and then remains to impose it as he sees fit. Today,
when the storm clouds are just gathering and the Establishment’s
political machine still remains intact, he (or she) would probably emerge
from one of the “two” big political parties—and every
one of the “mainstream” candidates for President, with the
instinct for seizing abusive powers inbred in all political predators,
is already posturing as such a figure, in anticipation of the main chance.
Yet, if History is any guide, they are all destined to be disappointed.
In some not-so-distant tomorrow, when the crisis finally bursts forth
in its full fury—and all political parties and politicians are
in disarray, discredited, and despised because of the mess they have
made of things—“the man on the white horse” will likely
emerge from the Armed Forces. After all, from the Senate, to the Caesars,
to the Praetorians is not a sequence of political devolution unique
to ancient Rome. Under modern conditions, though, it will likely be
accelerated. Even now talk is in the air about “martial law”
being imposed in the event of a collapse of the monetary and banking
systems or a major “terrorist” attack.

But
America’s Armed Forces—as vitally important as they are
for their proper purposes—should be, and should always want to
be, the very last source of political leadership. For, as Blackstone
told the Founding Fathers and continues to tell us, “martial law,
which is built upon no settled principles, but is entirely arbitrary
in it’s decisions, is * * * in truth and reality no law, but something
indulged, rather than allowed as law * * * ; and therefore it ought
not to be permitted in time of peace, when the * * * courts are open
for all persons to receive justice according to the laws of the land.”
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Volume I, at 412. The
purpose of the Armed Forces is to defend this country from all enemies,
foreign and domestic—not to attempt to lead it.

For
a crisis that threatens America’s survival as “a free State,”
the Constitution prescribes a different remedy altogether:

The
Armed Forces are not described by the Constitution as “necessary
to the security of a free State”—the Militia are.

The
Armed Forces are not composed of every able-bodied American from sixteen
to sixty, and thus the very embodiment of We the People—the Militia
are.

The
Armed Forces are not organized on the basis of “the several States,”
in keeping with the first principle of federalism—the Militia
are.

The
Armed Forces are not delegated by the Constitution the explicit responsibility
“to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and
repel Invasions”—the Militia are.

So
the Armed Forces—all the members of which have sworn to uphold
and defend the Constitution—should desire, perhaps more than any
other group, the restoration of the Militia to their rightful constitutional
place, prominence, and legal prerogatives.

In
the final analysis, any “man on a white horse”
is alien to the genius of American constitutionalism, because the essence
of constitutionalism is popular self-government, not “the Leader
Principle.” America has had more than enough of “the Leader
Principle” in the last eight years to last eight lifetimes. But
to avoid this danger staring them in the face, patriots must start seriously
planning and acting now, in order to take advantage of the
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity the next three years will offer. Not
just once in my lifetime, or yours, but once in this country’s
lifetime.

Quite
apropos in this situation is the analogy with which an old mathematics
instructor of mine reproved students who dawdled at the blackboard while
they chalked out faulty arguments in Euclidean geometry: “Life
is like a hunk of baloney; and time is like a knife. Every day you cut
off a piece and consume it. But no matter how thin you slice it, one
day you will be out of time and full of baloney!”

Every
“leading indicator” of political corruption, economic instability,
and social degeneracy tells us that this country’s time is running
out. But too many Americans, patriots included, are still just sitting
around, slicing into thinner and thinner pieces the same moldy baloney
of divisive party politics that has inflicted upon their country one
dose of indigestion after another—and now threatens to finish
her off with a terminal case of food poisoning.

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We
know what the McCains, the Clintons, the Obamas, and everyone who advances
their anti-American agenda are full of. And it is nothing as wholesome
or tasty as baloney, either.
The question the answer to which will determine whether this country
survives in freedom and prosperity—or even survives at all as
an independent nation—thus remains: What are we full of? Baloney?
Or the courage of our convictions? Time will soon tell. And what it
tells will be tellingly told.

Edwin Vieira, Jr., holds four degrees from Harvard:
A.B. (Harvard College), A.M. and Ph.D. (Harvard Graduate School of Arts
and Sciences), and J.D. (Harvard Law School).

For more than thirty years he has
practiced law, with emphasis on constitutional issues. In the Supreme
Court of the United States he successfully argued or briefed the cases
leading to the landmark decisions Abood v. Detroit Board of Education,
Chicago Teachers Union v. Hudson, and Communications Workers of America
v. Beck, which established constitutional and statutory limitations on
the uses to which labor unions, in both the private and the public sectors,
may apply fees extracted from nonunion workers as a condition of their
employment.

He has written numerous monographs
and articles in scholarly journals, and lectured throughout the county.
His most recent work on money and banking is the two-volume Pieces
of Eight: The Monetary Powers and Disabilities of the United States
Constitution (2002), the most comprehensive study in existence of American
monetary law and history viewed from a constitutional perspective. www.piecesofeight.us

He is also the co-author (under
a nom de plume) of the political novel CRA$HMAKER:
A Federal Affaire (2000), a not-so-fictional story of an engineered crash
of the Federal Reserve System, and the political upheaval it causes. www.crashmaker.com

Changing one of the
Establishment’s horses—or jackasses—for another in the
middle of this septic stream, though, will alter nothing of substance
for the better. If the Democrats end up controlling both Congress and
the White House, the exorbitantly expensive socialistic policies they
will enact within the first two years....